Originally Posted by
Jack's ABC
Everyone in the UK, rides with the right lever operating the front brake. Just accept your bike's Anglophile habits, don't try and Americanize it. In time you will learn to love your bike for what it is and at same you can learn to sing "God save the Queen", wave the Union Jack and drink warm beer.
I found this out when renting a mountain bike in Christchurch, NZ. For the first ten or fifteen minutes I could not figure out for the life of me why my rear wheel kept skidding out. It wasn't until I had to carry the bike over a fence barrier and squeezed the left to stop the front wheel from rotating that I caught on to what was happening. By the end of the four hour ride I was braking without having to think about it.
Of course the next week in Queenstown the shop I rented from (Vertigo Bikes) switched the cables before I picked up the bike because I was an American. It took another ten or fifteen minutes of riding to relearn that the left was front.
Originally Posted by
Biopacer
All bikes should be right front-configured. It's a better brake to use, as you can still pedal even when trying to slow down. You can only "slam" the right brake, and I rarely slam a brake unless I'm in traffic. Braking isn't on-off, but more like a clutch. You brake slowly, and anticipate a stop, not skid as you decide last minute about that barrier.
I'm sorry, but I don't see any of your reasoning as to why right-to-front is better. I think everything you have said would apply whether the front brake is connected to the left or right lever.
After my experience in NZ, I think it's more a matter of what you are used to and what you find comfortable. A list of pros & cons could probably be made for both setups.